Many products contain components that are positioned relative to one another during a manufacturing assembly process. However, after initial positioning, it may be desired that these components be held in a fixed relative position. For example, many mobile cameras (those embedded in wireless telephones for instance) have a fixed focal length. Accordingly, the camera modules, e.g., lens assembly components, may be adjustably focused during manufacturing and then are locked for the life of the product.
Current approaches for facilitating adjustment during manufacturing and locking of camera components thereafter include threading a plastic part that holds the lenses into another plastic housing that holds the imaging sensor. The spacing between the lens assembly and the sensor is adjusted by turning the threaded engagement. When correctly positioned, UV cure epoxy is typically used to lock the two plastic parts together. This approach has a number of undesirable attributes, for example: 1) the threaded engagement can generate particles that may contaminate the sensor surface and produce blemishes in the images made by the camera; 2) the curing of the UV-cure epoxy adds cycle time to the manufacturing process; 3) the epoxy impedes rework of modules that are discovered to be out of focus at final test; and 4) the thread tolerances allow for play in the threaded engagement, which can result in relative movement after focus is set, but before UV cure.